Baseball playoffs in Texas started in earnest last weekend, and a host of area teams emerged from the fray with bi-district championship trophies and hopes of more hardware to come.

But for some teams, the opening round of the postseason was part of a long waiting game that comes for district champions from Class 1A, 2A and 3A. Six area squads — Cooper, Seminole, Abernathy, New Deal, Tahoka and Hale Center — earned first-round byes for winning their respective districts, and while skipping the bi-district round has its obvious advantages (having to win one less series to make it to state among them), it can also create obstacles.

“It’s one of those deals where you want to keep playing,” said New Deal coach David Turner, whose team will begin its postseason run with the opener of a best-of-three area round series against Reagan County at 6 p.m. Friday in Sweetwater. “You play practice games to try to keep the momentum going. You try to keep game-type reps up. You’re talking about 16-, 17-, 18-year-old kids, so you have to keep them focused.”

One way teams with byes try to stay sharp is by scheduling simulated games. These contests allow hitters to take their hacks in game-type situations and give pitchers the chance to maintain at least some semblance of a normal routine.

Turner said the key to these games is approaching them with the same degree of intensity as any game during the regular season to prevent any bad habits from forming.

“You have to make them realize the (practice) games do mean something,” Turner said. “It’s also a time when you get a chance to try something in a game that you didn’t try in the regular season. You’re throwing pitchers at different times in games, and we have them all on a pitch count.”

Tahoka coach James Garrett has developed his own way of keeping the rust away during breaks in the schedule. When he took over the Bulldog program in 2010, he instituted the Blue-Black Series, a season-long intrasquad battle that has become a source of pride for the team.

Garrett splits his team into two even units, and during breaks in the schedule, Black and Blue will square up for games that have become as important to the players as any contest on the regular-season schedule.

“The kids want to win that series so bad,” Garrett said, “and they’re trying to make sure they do whatever it takes to win those games.”

Last year there were three games in the Black-Blue series, but this season, Garrett was determined to make it a best-of-seven series. The plan came to fruition last week when Blue wrapped up the deciding victory to take the series, 4-3. But with what the Bulldogs — the District 3-1A champs who open their area round series against Winters at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Snyder — hope will be a long postseason run ahead of them, the series is likely to stretch even further in the coming weeks.

The head-to-head contests don’t always come in the form of standard-rules games. Garrett said the team plays a game called 3-2-1, in which hitters get 15 swings to produce hits of varying point values (i.e. line drives are worth three points, while an infield pop fly is worth one). The variety at practices, Garrett said, helps keep players focused during long breaks between games.

“Those kids can’t just go out there and take ground balls every day,” he said. “Competition is key for kids. They want to battle against each other.”

Leadership is also key during lengthy layoffs. With the school year nearing an end and summer weather creeping in, distractions are everywhere. Turner said having a strong corps of seniors helps the team stay focused on the task at hand.

“It’s been crucial,” Turner said of the senior leadership. “It’s one of those deals where you’ve got kids who have been through the program and they know what to expect.

“We just know we have to come out and focus on the game at hand. It’s always been one of our things where we don’t talk about (the state tournament in) Round Rock until we get to Round Rock.”